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Team Trek: Experiential Learning in Arkansas

September 19, 2022

Nestled in the Ozark hills just a stone’s throw from Greers Ferry Lake, some of the nation’s best team-building and leadership courses take place in a tiny Arkansas community. Team Trek has called Tumbling Shoals home for nearly 30 years, and while the training center might be hidden among the Ozark foothills and forest, the leadership and life lessons Team Trek provides are eye-opening and life-changing.

In 1994, Gary Gore was a successful businessman. He had built several high-performing sales teams in the grain marketing and transportation industries in Memphis, but Gore’s passion centered on leadership and his love of the outdoors. So, he decided it was time to put his passions together and bought 650 acres in Tumbling Shoals . He founded Team Trek to focus on experiential leadership training conducted outdoors on the vast Team Trek campus.

In the beginning, Gore used his Memphis connections to bring in teams from Memphis-area businesses. Gore walked the teams through leadership principles he’d learned from his years in business and allowed them to work through difficult outdoor challenges together to practice the skills they were learning. When Conrad Lehfedlt joined Team Trek in 2005, the Arkansas-based business really started to diversify its client base and grow in its mission as well. “We went from delivering leadership programs to produce leaders to actively engaging entire teams,” Lehfedlt says. “I’ve seen leaders, teams, and companies transform to become places where people are valued and do their best and do great things for their customers.”

Gore’s vision for those who come through the Team Trek leadership training was twofold: building people and connecting teams. Through a Team Trek experience, participants learn how to become “actively engaged people” who are excited to bring their best to their workplace and to their lives. Gore found experiential learning to be the best way to get people out of the workplace so they could learn hands-on. Most of the leadership experiences take place on the now 800-acre campus. Teams arrive on Monday and stay at the center all week. They eat meals together and attend classroom-based seminars. However, 85% of leadership training takes place outside.

Roger Smithson experienced Team Trek firsthand. He was in the first group his company sent to the Arkansas training center, and has now been involved with Team Trek for over 20 years. His company decided to send every manager through Team Trek training, and Smithson would take them in groups of 8 to 14 to the Tumbling Shoals campus. The personal changes he saw the teams encounter were both remarkable and remarkably similar. “Never do we hear anyone leave and say, ‘I learned something about business but nothing personal.’ They’re thinking in a very personal way about the person they want to be,” Smithson says of the Team Trek experience. “We ask for one commitment: to live a life of 100% responsibility.”

This commitment tracks directly back to Gary Gore’s foundational vision for engaged people. In his book, “Character and Culture: A Field Guide To Culture Change,” Gore outlines his main theme as “I am 100% responsible for how I choose to respond to everything in my life.” Once participants have grasped that, they go on to learn aspects of trust, communication, conflict resolution and accountability. Except all of it happens outdoors in carefully-designed physical challenges.

“These events are very challenging,” Smithson says of the outdoor experiences. “Not everything goes smoothly. They don’t always complete it on time. It requires a lot of teamwork and communication, but a lot of laughter, too. What can appear to be extremely complicated is actually simple.” After each outdoor challenge, teams go through a debrief to talk about successes and failures and think through how these events relate to their own lives, professionally and personally.

One year ago, Smithson took the leap from regularly bringing teams to training to becoming part of the Team Trek team. He’s now a Master Coach with Team Trek, and in his first year, he has also focused on bringing more Arkansas-based companies through the leadership program. Team Trek has worked with a variety of companies, from small family businesses with four to five employees all the way up to international corporations. The types of groups are diverse as well. “We’ve done school boards, teachers, manufacturing, a dry cleaner, sports teams: anywhere you need a team to come together,” Smithson says.

Before a team arrives, a master coach conducts virtual workshops to teach the foundational principles ahead of time. After a week of training, Smithson will also do follow-up coaching for those who attended, and for the person in charge of that team, “coaching the coach” to make them an even better manager for their team. After nearly 30 years of existence, Team Trek has refined the process of experiential leadership training well. When founder Gary Gore died in February of 2022, he had already laid a strong and steady foundation not just for Team Trek, but for countless people and leadership teams around the world. Team Trek continues to train leaders using Gore’s experiential training style and core values, and the training center in Tumbling Shoals is as vibrant as ever.

To learn more about Team Trek and how to take your own team through experiential leadership training, visit teamtrek.com or schedule a discovery call .

All photos are courtesy of Team Trek and used with permission.

Meet the author.

Learn more about Kimberly Mitchell .

A little about Kimberly Mitchell .

Kimberly S. Mitchell loves journeys, real or imagined. She has hiked the Inca Trail, walked into Panama on a rickety wooden bridge and once missed the last train of the night in Paris and walked several miles home (with friends). She believes magic can be found in life and books, loves to watch the stars appear, and still dreams of backpacking the world. Now she writes adventures to send her characters on journeys, too. Pen & Quin: International Agents of Intrigue - The Mystery of the Painted Book is her debut novel. Find out more at KSMitchell.com.

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Shortlist for the Moscow City Agglomeration Development Concept

• Written by Karissa Rosenfield
• Published on March 05, 2012

The Architectural Department of Moscow City Government (MosComArhitectura) has announced the shortlisted teams competing to design the strategy that will be used to double the size of Moscow . With an uneven distribution of working places throughout the Russian Federation capital, millions of residents are forced to commute each day to the over-populated, historic city center, thus causing serious transportation, ecological and social problems within the region.

The Moscow City Agglomeration Development Concept will see the city annex 150,316 hectares to its south-west in order to overcome its chronic space problems. OMA , Diller Scofidio & Renfro and McAdam Architects , lead by the well-known Russian architects Andrey Chernihov and Alexei Ginsburg, are a few names that appear among the ten shortlisted teams. Continue reading for more competition details and the entire shortlist.

McAdam Architects practice director, Tanya Kalinina said: “This is a completely unusual task. The strategy for a major capital city of over ten million is to be completely re-thought and enlarged to twice the size.”

Nearly 35% of the cities working places are concentrated within the densely built city center. The concept aims to provide a “wave-type” redistribution that will relieve the current strain of the historical centers by reorganizing and redeveloping the middle and periphery circular city zones. These zones are currently occupied by high-density housing with insufficient working spaces, transportation and social infrastructure; therefore the development of social infrastructure and high-speed transportation infrastructure will also play a major part in the plan for the Moscow agglomeration.

Additionally, the middle planning belt of the south-western sector will offer a place for local complexes of scientific, educational, medical objects and innovative production objects along with preservation of the valuable natural landscapes and recreation. The valuable natural landscape of the periphery planning belt will also be preserved with establishment of three to four national parks.

The Complete Shortlist

1. Ostozhenka Architets ( Russia ) Ateliers Lion Associes (France) SGP (France) Paris-Saclay (France) Epadesa (France)

2. International Academy of Architecture (Prof Andrey Chernihov) Juul-Frost Architects (Denmark) Diller Scofidio & Renfro (USA) McAdam Architects (UK) Ginzburg Architects (Russia) Tower 151 Architects (Croatia)

3. Moscow Architectural Institute Devereux Architects (Ireland)

4. Central Research and Project Institute of Urbanism / Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Science (Russia) Nikken Sekkei (Japan) RTKL (UK) Knight Frank

5. Antoine Grumbach et Associes SA (France) Wilmotte & Associes SA (France) Egis International (France) SGP, EPPS, EPADESA, CFREE – group of experts (France) High School of Economics (Russia)

6. L’AUC (France) Bureau BAS Smets (Belgium) Sestra (France) Franc Boutte Consultant (France)

7. OMA (The Netherlands) Strelka Institute (Russia) Project Meganom (Russia) Siemens AG (Germany) McKinsey & Company (USA)

8. Ricardo Bofill (Spain) Barcelona Regional Agency for Urban Development (Spain)

9.  Studio Associato Secchi-Vgano (Italy)

10. Urban Design Associates (USA) Beasley & Associates (Canada) Gillespes LLP (Scotland) John Thompson & Partners (UK) Nelson / Nigaard (USA) Buro Happold (Scotland)

Each shortlisted team will be paid €250,000 to further develop their concepts over the course of six months. City authorities may select a combination of winners to work on different phases of the project.

• Sustainability

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The spiraling 246m high Evolution Tower is located on plots 2-3 of Moscow-City high-rise business district on Presnenskaya Embankment of Moscow river. New multi-function center occupies the territory of 2.5ha in area, 2ha of which is a landscaped terraced civic plaza, the integral part of the new city piazza, the central open public space of Moscow-City business downtown.

ivic plaza includes 10m high ceremonial stairs (leading from embankment and pedestrian Bagration Bridge to the higher terraced levels) as well as landscaped areas with green lawns, trees, water features, travellators and feature lightboxes.

Evolution Tower

Location: Moscow, Russia

Typology: High-Rise, Office, Mixed-Use

Years: Construction 2011-2014

Status: Built

Height: 246m

Design team: GORPROJECT  (2011-2015), 

RMJM Scotland Ltd 

(original concept 2005-2007)

Under the piazza levels the 2-storey retail mall connects the Evolution Tower with metro station and pedestrian bridge over Moscow river, thus integrating the new development into the large Moscow-City district, the Europe's newest and most ambitious high-rise cluster (7 of 10 highest European skyscrapers ae located here), housing over 4 million square meters of office and retail areas with associated transport and engineering infrastructure.   

The Evolution Gallery mall houses food court and 6,000m2 family entertainment and educational center for various children activities (the first center of that kind in Moscow). 

The 82,000m2 office tower has 52 levels rotated 3 degrees each floor with overall twist reaching 156 degrees clockwise. With world’s largest innovative cold-bent glazing the tower façade provides seamless floating reflection that rotates the panoramas of Moscow skyline vertically, where the reflected clouds moving up enhance the dynamic visual impact of the twisted tower, an unprecedented optical effect in the world architecture.  The Crown with supporting steel structure made of two twisted arches provides the helipad at the very top as well as the open observation roof decks at Levels 51-52 featuring the best panoramas of Moscow riverside with views towards the historical center. 

From the very beginning the developer and architects have set an ambitious task to create a recognizable and symbolic tower, the new icon of contemporary Moscow.  The sculptural DNA-shaped twisting tower symbolizes the evolution spiral with the white façade ribbon wrapping over the roof in a form of 90-degree twisted infinity symbol, which speaks of philosophical concept of evolution and celebrates the development of human civilization. From spiraling onion domes of St. Basil to the iconic Tatlin Tower concept the Russian architecture was obsessed with idea of spiral. The simple and innovative design was based on principles of twisting square-shaped floor plates with vertical structural RC frame supported by a central core and 8 columns with continuous beams and 4 spiraling columns at the corners. 

The proposed structural scheme with cantilevered continuous RC beams and cantilevered floor slabs  picking up the overhangs from the twisted floor plates appeared to be simple, efficient and economical. The complex sculptural tower façade envelope was built using the innovative cold-bent glazing with flat double glazed units cold-formed in 3D within the aluminum frame under its own weight to avoid stepping in geometry. This approach appeared to be both more energy-efficient and more cost-efficient solution in comparison to the stepped curtain wall units previously applied in some twisted unitized facades. 

The multifunctional architectural glass by Guardian significantly reduces the solar gain whilst providing the double glazed unit thermal performance equal to standard triple glazed unit normally used in Moscow to withstand harsh winter conditions. The use of innovative TWIN elevators by ThyssenKrupp saved 2 shafts within the core (10 TWINs instead of 12 double-deckers in the original concept) and contributed to the overall project sustainability with lesser power consumption per passenger. Other sustainable design features include green roofs over the retail mall and integrated coil floor heating under landscaped civic piazza levels using the return water in winter to melt the snow and ice for the safety of pedestrians. The reinforced concrete formwork by PERI, including self-climbing ACS formwork specially designed for the twisting corner columns, allowed to achieve the impressive speed of RC frame construction of 6 days per floor due to perfect site logistics by Renaissance Construction as main contractor. 

All innovative design solutions and optimizations secured the delivery of this fairly unique skyscraper within the project plan and almost within the budget of the standard ‘benchmark’ high-rise building. This turned out to be a major achievement of the design and construction teams. 

The organic twisting silhouette dominates on its background of extruded glass towers greatly contributing into the overall composition of the high-rise Moscow-City cluster. The development delivered a significant open public space on the landscaped roof of the retail mall, thus providing the perfect mix of business uses with public and social activities of the civic plaza and the mall with its food court and core family entertainment function. The synergy of that mix with large underground car-park complemented by the direct link to the metro station and pedestrian bridge as means of main public transportation secured the successful project completion with the recent entire tower acquisition. Bold shape and timeless aesthetics as added values brought by its unique architecture materialized in a commercial success of this project with the tower being fully acquired for corporate headquarters even in the context of oversupply in the Moscow office market. The outstanding quality of architecture and its fine detailing, state of the art building services and communications of Class A office Tower together with the highest level of transport accessibility  (direct access to metro station from the lobby, large car-parking, proximity to boat pier and helipads) make this property very attractive for tenants and visitors. The beautiful riverside panoramas from offices are complemented by green roof and water features of the large 2ha terraced civic piazza as the main recreational outdoor space with direct link from the office tower lobby. 

The highest quality of façade cladding, glazing, vertical transportation and MEP equipment from leading European and international suppliers provided the truly Class-A office environment with the luxury of minimalist spirit in the architecture of the new landmark on the Moscow skyline. Even before its completion the sculptural spiral of Evolution Tower, more often appearing in commercials, posters and magazines, became a new icon for modern Moscow as the symbol of its business ambitions and fast development. The Evolution Tower also became the monument to the courage of its developer (Snegiri Group) and investors, who built the great deal of trust with architects, engineers and contractors by investing their efforts and funds in a challenging adventure of designing and building the unique and innovative skyscraper for the capital of Russia. 

Evolution Reflections

Philipp nikandrov.

CHANGED LIVES. TRANSFORMED CULTURES.

Download team trek's culture change guide and map your journey today., create a culture of actively engaged people producing extraordinary results.

The right culture fosters trust, creates engagement and exponentially increases the speed of the team and the results they produce. Make culture the cornerstone of your business strategy. Team Trek can help you get there. View the Culture Change Roadmap.

Read the Book. Book the Course.

It is easy to feel powerless when we encounter adversity and rapid change. However, we do not have to be powerless. 100% Responsibility is the recognition that each of us has a choice in how we respond to the circumstances of life. It is an empowering way to live and key to being agile in the face of adversity and rapid change.   

“ I can’t think of a more impactful concept to the growth and success of our company (as well as for me in my personal life as well as the lives of many of our people) than 100% Responsibility. I am grateful to have this new material to use for myself and others.” David Stansell, CEO, Stansell Electric Company, Inc. 

​Team Trek Has the Tools to Guide You.

Experiential learning programs, training workshops, leadership coaching, 360 assessments.

The Virtue of Suffering

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